{"id":17437,"date":"2019-09-20T05:30:16","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T09:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=17437"},"modified":"2019-12-31T15:12:34","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T20:12:34","slug":"hundred-word-reviews-for-september-2019-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/20\/hundred-word-reviews-for-september-2019-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundred-word Reviews for September 2019, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

More capsule reviews! New music! Vinyl titles are noted with the designation (LP).<\/p>\n

\"\"Fastball \u2013 <\/b>The Help Machine<\/b><\/i>
\nIf you’re a certain age, you remember \u201cThe Way.\u201d If you were especially sharp in those days, you might know the even better \u201cYou’re an Ocean.\u201d Fastball’s approach struck me as a kind of American answer to early Elvis Costello. Guess what: they’re still at it, and all of the qualities that made their early material so appealing are in bright display on this new record. One listen to the opening \u201cFriend or Foe\u201d and they’ll be stuck in your head. They have two superb songwriters in Miles Zuniga and Tony Scalzo. A contender for my favorite album of 2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Muffs \u2013 <\/b>No Holiday<\/b><\/i>
\nLed by Kim Shattuck of criminally-overlooked ’80s garage band the Pandoras, the Muffs have long been known for an exuberant and bratty kind of rock and roll. Omnivore Recordings recently did some fine reissues of the band’s older records; No Holiday<\/i> is the first new release from the trio in some five years. There’s a concept at work here, too, but it’s a pleasingly straightforward one: super-short songs. It’s a bit like Flo and Eddie’s idea that you can hear everything a pop song has to offer in a minute or less. That said, these tunes offer quite a lot. (NOTE: Sadly, Shattuck passed away less than two weeks after this review was published, even before No Holiday<\/em> was released. Though perhaps it wasn’t intended as such, the album found the group going out on a high artistic note.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Poncho Sanchez \u2013 <\/b>Trane’s Delight<\/b><\/i>
\nGrammy-winning Latin jazz star Poncho Sanchez offers up a delightful set of tunes on Trane’s Delight<\/i>. And while John Coltrane often moved in some ambitious directions that could challenge (or even intimidate) the casual listener, Sanchez’s approach here is rooted in a solidly approachable style. This is music that will make the listener smile, maybe lean their head back and sway with the beat. Sanchez and his band recast tunes in a way that will make you wonder if Latin jazz wasn’t somehow what the composers had in mind to begin with. Complex beats and time signatures are rendered accessibly.<\/p>\n

\"\"Scott Gagner \u2013 <\/b>Hummingbird Heart<\/b><\/i>
\nEven if the accompanying one-sheet hadn’t told me so, I’m sure I would have identified Gagner’s Midwestern \u2013 specifically Minnesotan \u2013 roots. Whatever it is that made Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic special has clearly informed Gagner’s music as well. Not that he sounds a lot like either of those acts; it’s a subtler quality at work, but it’s there nonetheless. There’s a dreamy, gauzy and introspective vibe to most of the late-night-record songs on Hummingbird Heart<\/i>, and it rarely rocks. Even when there is a prominent beat \u2013 as on the woozy \u201cBreathe\u201d \u2013 the feel is intimate and melancholy.<\/p>\n

\"\"Lolas \u2013 <\/b>A Dozen or Seven Tapestries<\/b><\/i>
\nThose Yellow Pills<\/i> CDs from the 1990s are quite sought-after these days. Out of print and unlikely to be reissued, they’re full of power pop gems of the highest oder. If you can’t lay hands on them \u2013 you can’t have mine \u2013 you could do worse than pick up A Dozen or Seven Tapestries.<\/i> Seamless harmonies, the requisite chiming guitars (with unusually interesting textures) and delightfully busy drumming make this a pleasure to hear. Sure, they’ve ingested plenty of Rubber Soul<\/i> and Revolver<\/i>. But you probably have as well. Apparently these guys aren’t very prolific. Quality beats quantity, though.<\/p>\n

\"\"Giles Robson \u2013 <\/b>Don’t Give Up on the Blues<\/b><\/i>
\nThe distinctive sound of a blues harp \u2013 blown through a Green Bullet mic and a guitar amp \u2013 is one that’s warmly familiar to blues fans. And British singer\/harpist Giles Robson is an exemplar of the instrument. This collection of a dozen original blues numbers isn’t long on originality, but then that’s not the point. The tunes \u2013 expertly delivered by a solid four-piece band \u2013 are primarily designed as vehicles for Robson’s appealing voice and that wailing harmonica. The feel of the recording is one of a band simply captured live in the studio, without ProTools and such.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"Pat Travers \u2013 <\/b>Swing!<\/b><\/i>
\nYou might remember Travers’ party-rock single from 1979, a cover of Little Walter’s \u201cBoom Boom (Out Go the Lights),\u201d a raucous rocker with more than a hint of old-school style. Chances are good you don’t know much else of his work. Regardless, his latest \u2013 a collection of jump blues and swing tunes cleverly updated for modern rock audiences is a fun ride. \u201cIn the Mood\u201d works as a rock tune; who knew? Travers’ trio is backed on many tracks by a horn section that understands the feel of this music. Swing! <\/i>connects the dots between the 1940s and today.<\/p>\n

\"\"Opossums \u2013 s\/t (LP)<\/b>
\nLooking for some speedy punk? You’ve come to the right place \u2026 and then some. Like early Green Day, Opossums combine a fierce sonic attack with a clear and deep understanding of pop song convention. With nothing more than guitar, bass and drum kit, this trio tears through ten tunes with amusing titles like \u201cRhyme and Punishment.\u201d But they’re not all about simple punk: the band adds a layer of arena-rock sheen on \u201cLove Machine\u201d sounding like glam rock of the early ’70s crossed with Teenage Fanclub. And they swagger like Faces or Thin Lizzy on \u201cLeft in the Ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Toy Trucks \u2013 <\/b>Rockets Bells and Poetry (LP)<\/b><\/i>
\nThis band features guitarist and singer Jeremy Scott, formerly of Greg Cartwright’s celebrated Reigning Sound. The Toy Trucks come from a similar place musically, rocking hard-hard-hard. \u201cI’m on the Dish But I Ain’t no Rag\u201d is an uncompromising rocker that demonstrates yet again what can be done with three chords and a distortion pedal. But on cuts like \u201cDon’t Be So Easy,\u201d the band conjures the spirit of ’70s Memphis bands like the Scruffs and (a just a little bit of) Big Star. And when they tone it down for acoustic tunes like the softly shimmering \u201cBayview,\u201d it still works.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fingers Like Saturn \u2013 s\/t (LP)<\/b>
\nI seriously doubt that this Memphis band was consciously trying to remind listeners of Bryan Ferry’s Boys and Girls<\/i> LP, but the cover art is similar. The music, however, ain’t. It’s much closer to early ’80s college\/indie rock. The songs are wordy, showcasing Cori Dial’s strong vocals, and the band is razor-sharp. Songs like \u201cSatnin (Pine Box Lullaby)\u201d trick the listener into thinking they’re acostic folk number, but then they go off and rock out, and change again to sound like a female Alex Chilton covering Kris Kristofferson’s \u201cMe and Bobby McGee\u201d (or at least lifting its melody). Bratty fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More capsule reviews! New music! Vinyl titles are noted with the designation (LP). Fastball \u2013 The Help Machine If you’re a certain age, you remember \u201cThe Way.\u201d If you were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,42,49,55,59,62,65,73],"tags":[814,3973,3977,3978,3975,3976,3980,3979,3981,3974],"class_list":["post-17437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-powerpop","category-punk","category-rawk","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-fastball","tag-fingers-like-saturn","tag-giles-robson","tag-lolas","tag-opossums","tag-pat-travers","tag-poncho-sanchez","tag-scott-gagner","tag-the-muffs","tag-the-toy-trucks","cat-9-id","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-55-id","cat-59-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17437"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18022,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17437\/revisions\/18022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}